Black Fire
by Utsuki
Summary: Naruto-tachi meets a stranger who ended up being someone they never thought they will meet (Lame summary ;;)


  
  
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**Authors Note:** I'm not much of a writer so please bare with me and tell you ahead of time that I'm just too lazy to check for grammer and spelling. Plus I'm doing this just to pass the time, even though there something else I should doing that's more important than this *cough*homework*cough* but then again I could always do that _later_ ^^;; So since I wrote/type this I might as well send it to FF.net. Although as much as I don't like Mary Sues, I can't help to even have one of my own. I try not to ruin the story (gomen Kishimoto-sensei ;_;) even though it will be anyways ... maybe. I would write a yaoi fic but I'm not good with that since I never done it ... yet. Since you can do quite alot of things with Mary Sues in fanfics which is quite actually fun! ^^ Also please forgive me for any OC-ness and maybe even confusion O_O;; especially on Sasuke, I kinda have a deep hatred towards him for now at least ^^:;

**Spoilers?** Well ... it's takes place a couple of chapters of the manga ahead of the end of the exam (somehwere around the 150s), so if you're up-to-date with the latest Naruto manga in JUMP (not Viz's JUMP) you don't have to worry about the spoilers! ^^ So proceed with caution!!!!! The first sentence even has spoiler O_o;; 

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**STRANGER**  
     Chapter 1   
  


    After everyone's excitment over the Chuunin exam, and a few days of recovery over the death of the 4th Hokage, everyone was soon back to their somewhat normal live. The sun was shining bright up high on the great heaven's sky, the winds blowing gently across the lands, but the air was heavy full of grief and fear. 

     Most of the upper level ninjas are off investigating over whatever needs to be investigating that is related to the incident during the Chuunin exam. The Genins were given a day to rest after doing their best in the exam, and cheering for whoever they were cheering for. 

     Team 7 met up at their usual meeting place at the bridge. However their sensei isn't present and won't be for the rest of the day. His presence was needed elsewhere. The stood in silence for quite awhile until a certain short blonde broke it. "So ... anyone up for ramen?" His only reply was Sakura's fist and Sasuke's cold attitude. 

     "Mou ... is ramen all you think about?" Sakura asked although she knew it really was what on his mind most of the time.

     "Hmm ... how 'bout some sweets? My treat!" Naruto smiled brightly but was only recieved again by Sakura's fist. 

     "Ah~ itai!! Not so hard, Sakura-chan!" Naruto pouted while he mothered his injuries. Sakura only just shooked her head like a mother would to a child who was caught stealing cookies.

     "This isn't the time to be thinking about food, Naruto!" Sakura pointed out.

     "But I'm hungry! I haven't eaten any breakfast or anything the whole day!" Naruto rubbed his stomach as if to give a hint of his pain of starvation. Sakura saw the hint and sighed deeply.

     "Let's just take a walk around the village," Sakura suggested, "since we don't have any missions for us today we basically have the whole day off. We'll pick up something to eat as well I guess." Naruto decided to agree with her, and started to mentally list what he might buy on their little walk around the village. Sakura turned her attention towards Sasuke so she wouldn't leave him behind, "Is that alright with you, Sasuke-kun?" she asked as sweetly as possible to him. Sasuke agreed to go with Sakura's walk idea, although he rather train all day but he needed something to relax his mind and with Naruto around he might release some of his discomfort from the past few days towards him. His recent encounter with his brother, Itachi, has been bothering him (AN: lets just pretend Sasuke didn't get badly injured at that time) He started to a random direction to begin their walk, the others followed behind him. 

     They entered a nearby market place and passed by many shops. Naruto caught a ramen shop nearby and ran towards it to buy himself a bowl. Sasuke to go the opposite direction in hope that he might find something that'll interest him. And as for Sakura was about to follow Sasuke until she spotted a certain someone in the crowd. "_Ino_" she hissed her name in an annoyed manner. 

     Ino was studying the various hair accessories that are displayed, but she was intrupted by Sakura, her best friend and rival. "Ah! Well isn't _this_ a pleasant surprise, _Sakura_." 

     "I see that you're looking for a new hair piece to show off and capture Sasuke's attention aren't you?" Sakura asked as her look harden at Ino. A smirk appeared on Ino's features. The tension between the young female shinobis increased that even the people around them can feel it. The crowd began to move away from them as they sense a battle between then is about to begin soon. The two continue to stare at each other. 

     "I was thinking," Ino began as she picked up a pony tail holder from the display tray, "of getting this one. Do you think it'll look good on me?" The pony tail holder had a design of a sapphire butterly adorn with beautiful beads. She hold up to eye level so that Sakur can have a good look at the beauty the holder holds. 

     Sakura reacher her hand down and picked up a hair clamp and hold it up to eye level as well. "I think it looks good on you, but ... I think you'll look better with this Aqua Jeweled clamp." The clamp is loaded with wodnerful crystals in various shades of light blue and aqua. The tension between them grew and was about ready to explode when someone decided to pop it like a bubble. 

     "Sakura-chan!~ There you are! I've been looking for you!" Naruto smiled at her. "And where is everybody? Did they go home or something? There use to be are large crowd of people here just a moment ago." He was oblivious what was going on around her while he ate not just one bowl of ramen. Then he took notice of the blonde next to Sakura. "Hey Ino!" Although Ino would have a disgusted look on her face whenever she saw Naruto, but after she saw him in battle during the exam she gained alittle more repect for him. 

     "Hi Naruto" she said with a smile and then she turned towards Sakura. "Well it was nice seeing you again, Sakura, but I have get going since my teammates are waiting for me to train with them." With that she walked away from them and disappeared behind the nearby buildings. Sakura was searching around the area and then she turned her attention towards Naruto. 

     "Hey Naruto, where's Sasuke?" she asked him with a curious look. 

     "I thought you were with him," Naruto then had an evil amused look planted on his face. "Looks like his lost himself in the crowd and now he's all alone somewhere all by his lonesome self wondering where he is and where we are and-" Sakura's fist has now met with Naruto's face for the third time today. 

     "Don't be making fun of him like that, Naruto! He isn't a lost child!" Sakura exclaimed. 

     "Whose a lost child?" a familar cold voice asked. They both turned behind and saw Sasuke standing cooly. 

     "You are," Naruto answered him. A flicker of annoyance and anger was noticed from Sasuke's handsome features. He mumbled something inaudible and then he started off leading his teammates towards wherever this direction will take them. Sakura caught up to him so that she was walking side by side with him. 

     "Where were you anyway Sasuke-kun?" she asked him. "Did you eat anything?"

     "I had some sweets," he lied. Sasuke didn't really have anything to eat. His mind was too bothered what had happen on that day he finally met his brother again after all those years. To his disappointment that he still wasn't able to kill that man he had trained so hard to kill, and showed him that he was weak. He hated to be so weak. Always trying to improve himself and go so far beyond everyone else that it would've been hopeless to even catch up to him. However, he've met with so many other shinobis who are much stronger than he is such as Lee, Neji, and Kakashi, and even some who even are catching up to him like Naruto. In fact, Naruto might even been stranger than he is. This thought angered Sasuke even more, the fact that someone like Naruto is stronger than him. The fact that he couldn't kill Itachi at that time. And the fact that he was weak. These thoughts ran through him continuily over and over again as like a headache that never goes away during the day and haunts him in his dreams during the night. 

     Before they realised it, Team 7 has reached the main entrance gate of the village. Although they didn't have any missions today, it seem to them that they did and apparently already ready to go out for one or they would've never have unawarely walked to the direction where the main gate was located. Just as they about to turn away from the entrance a dark figure appeared before it. Without thinking, Naruto had his hand ready to take out a weapon from his holster as he assumed this dark figure to be an enemy, he walked up to the dark figure with his teammates following behind him. The dark figure had his back turned, as they came closer to him they se that this person wasn't from the village. They were about to make the first move when the figure straightened himself up and turned towards them and smiled. 

     Although it was clear to them that this person wasn't from the village, but it was obvious that this person had no intentions of threatening the village. To their surpirse, this dark figure was of a young woman. Team 7 felt awkward. Naruto found her quite familar as in her appearance. Her hair was black and short, and her eyes was dark as well but had a shine of innocence. Then his hit him, she seem quite similar to Sasuke, however, since it couldn't be possible that another Uchiha could be alive Naruto would just think of this as just one of those people who look so much alike one or two other people in the world no matter how weird this idea or maybe even a fact may be. She was actually quite pretty, and looked to be a bit older than Haku. She was dressed in all black as if to contrast her pale milky skin. A large broad sword hung from her back, and it seems as if she wasn't a shinobi since a headband wasn't present anywhere around her. She moved towards them with her warm smile.

     "Yo!" she greeted them. They all sweatdropped as it now became even more awkward than it already was. 

     "Ano ..." Sakura finally said, "who are you? And what are you doing here? Apparrently you're not a shinobi are you?" The woman looked at her and laughed. 

     "Oh no, of course I'm not!" she replied. "It seems as though not many of my kind ever visit this village very often. It has been quite a tough time these days now." 

     Then it finally registered to Sakura's brain as what this older woman was talking about. "You-you're a Ranger!" The woman nodded happily. 

     "Wow I'm really surprised you even found out what I am in such a short amount of time! You must've had a wonderful teacher!" Naruto had to smile at this. Although he doesn't really know what was going on. 

     "Eto ... what's a Ranger?" Naruto asked. 

     Sasuke signed heavily and said "Baka ..." he was just about to explain to Naruto what a Ranger was, Sakura stopped him. 

     "I'll explain it!" Sasuke decided to let her explain since he didn't really want to waste his breath on explaining things to Naruto. And so Sakura began, "Rangers aren't common, but they're out there. They're spend the rest of their lives traveling alone everywhere in the world for whatever reason it might be. Although you're probably wondering why they would do such a thing when shinobis are around and could ambush you, rob you, or even killed you." Naruto nodded at her. "They have their own ways of defending themselves against dangerous shinobis. They use their chakra differently than we do, it's really a strange technique but I'm not to sure how it works since I never saw or study about them. I know that they had a strong dislike towards shinobis and love to be with nature." 

     The women nodded and clapped her hands. "Wow you know quite alot about us! I'm impressed!" 

     "You don't like shinobis?" Naruto asked as if he has never heard of such an impossible thing. 

     The woman smiled brightly as him. "Nope! I _hate_ shinobis." Naruto was in disbelief.

     "So what's a Ranger like yourself doing here then?" Sasuke asked. The woman's smile was changed into a frown at the question that was asked coldly to her. She eyed him like she was trying to see through his soul. 

     "Believe it or not," she said, "I'm actually just visiting here. I've been here before so I just wanted to know how it was doing. I've heard about many great people from this village from everywhere. Recently I visited the Mist village and heard about a hero named Naruto who saved their village. I heard he was from this village so anyone of you know him?" From this Naruto became excited and laughed loudly that caused everyone to turn their attention towards him. 

     "That's _me_ you're talking about!" Naruto said loudly and full of joy that someone else has even notice and taken an interset in him. "I'm Naruto!" 

     "Heh~ so _you're_ the all great and amazing Naruto I've heard about!" Naruto's smile broaden. "I'm surprise that someone so young and adorable like you was such a great hero! But I feel lucky to even meet such a great person as yourself!" Her eyes soften and shone that she geniunely was glad to meet him and not just being nice. Naruto laughed alittle and blushed slightly as the comment that he waited for so long to be said to him. "And you are?" she turned to Sakura who smiled at her and gladly told her her name. The woman then turned to the other boy and asked for his name.

     "Uchiha Sasuke" he answered.

     "Uchiha?" the woman repeated. "This has to be my lucky day! I've actually meeting someone whose from the Uchiha clan! I've heard so many stories about your people and your Sharingan. To have such a powerful ability as that must be a _gift_." She emphazied the word "gift" in a way that it was hard to determine whether she meant that in a good or bad way. She eyes darken hiding and shielding her mind from being read, and smiling with a cryptic smile. Sasuke was lost as to what she was trying to say. He's sure to have it be revovling around his head for quite awhile.

     "Oh yes, I almost forgot to introduce myself!" the woman laughed at herself. "Uhaku! Souichi Uhaku!" As little as they know what they have gotten themselves into just from introducing each other, no one can tell what might or will happen to them in the future. As the wheel of Time turns and turns, and fate playing it's part in many lives and destiny as a sidekick, the future holds many promises. "Can I ask you guys something?" 

     "Sure!" Naruto anwsered for everyone. 

     "I'm looking for a place to sleep for a few nights. Any of you know a place that will spare me a bed?" Uhaku asked embarrassed. Team 7 all stared at each other wondering if there really is a place that this Ranger can stay for a few nights. 

     "Hmm ... hey I have an idea!" Naruto said. "She can stay at my place! I live alone and I think I have an extra futon lying around somewhere." Even though Naruto's apartment is small and a mess, he found this a good chance to actually have someone living with him for a few days. 

     "Really Naruto?" Uhaku asked hopefully. "I can't thank you enough!" As unexpected as it was, from her joy going so far beyond the charts she glomped Naruto. "You're the best!" Naruto blushed from embarrassment. From the start of this day, Naruto had thought that it would turn out to be another boring filled day without any missions. But in this case, it didn't and he was extremely happy for probably the second time in his life the first from the time he received his shinobi headband from Iruka-sensei. 

     "It's no problem! You can stay here as long as you want Souichi-san" Naruto said as he try to release himself from Uhaku's hug.

     "You sure about that Naruto? Your apartment was quite a mess from the last time I checked it." said a voice from above. "Although Naruto taking a stranger home does sound interesting!" They all turned towards where the voice was coming from and from everyones surprise it was someone they least expected.

     "Kakashi-sensei!" Sakura and Naruto shouted in totaly surprise. 

     "Didn't you have something important to do sensei?" Sasuke asked also surprised at his sudden appearance. 

     "I'm taking a brake" Kakashi answered. From an answer as that, even though his students should probably be use to this by now was still find it unbelievable that an upper level shinobi such as their sensei would try to escape from his mission to investigate on Orochimaru. 

     His students would've continued trying to persuade their sensei to go back however something stopped that from happening. They realised that Uhaku hasn't said anything and was just staring at Kakashi in disbelief. And he's staring at her, and Sakura and Naruto was staring at both Uhaku and Kakashi back and forth. Sasuke himself was staring at all of them. 

     "Ka-Kakashi?" Uhaku stuttered. 

     "So you heard of me?" Kakashi said, "And mind I ask who you are? It isn't very common for Rangers to be visiting this village even as such a such as this." 

     "I'm Souichi Uhaku," she introduced herself. "It's such a great pleasure to ..." she hesitated for a second. "meet you. I've heard many great things about you!" Kakashi jumped down from his hiding place in the tree and stepped in front of the group and stood towards Uhaku. 

     "What kind of things?" Kakashi asked.

     "Good things and bad things. The battles you had. The people you fought. The people you killed. And even about your left eye." 

     "That's quite some information you heard about me. Although it all may not be true."

     "It may and it may not. But it's enough that it makes me convinced that you are a very strong shinobi. Definitely someone that I wouldn't even want to fight myself." A loud grumbling noise had broken this conversation. They all had their attention towards the source of the sounds. 

     "Naruto ... don't tell me you're hungry already?" Sakura asked annoyed at him. Naruto just laughed and scratched the back of his in embarassment. He admit that he was hungry yet again. 

     "Baka ..." Sasuke mumbled also annoyed at Naruto. Uhaku just laughed from her amusement.

     "Well since the sun is setting," Uhaku pointed out and they all have realised that the day had gone by quite quickly than they expected. "I guess we all should be somewhat hungry since dinner time should be quite near." And she was right. 

     "I guess we'll have to go have dinner then," Sakura said. "My mother will be angry if I don't come back home in time for dinner. So I'll probably have to go now. "

     "I have somethings I need to take care of before this day is over," Sasuke said and he started to head back to the village. Sakura chased after him saying that after she said her farewells and began walking with him. 

     "Well Naruto," Uhaku began, "shall we get something to eat? Kakashi-san can join us if he wants."

     Kakashi just smiled at her and said, "I'll have to pass on the offer. I'm actaully waiting for someone, maybe next time." 

     "Heh? Who are you waiting for, Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto asked. 

     "HI-MI-TSU[1]" Kakashi answered mocking at Naruto. Naruto just pouted with annoyance that his sensei wouldn't answer his question. 

     Uhaku smiled with amusement. "Alright, I guess it's just you and me Naruto! I could cook you something nice. Do you have anything in your fridge that I could use?" 

     "Well ..." Naruto thought for awhile at the question although he really doesn't need to since he basically lives off one type of food. "All I have are ramen and some milk." 

     "Really? Do you live alone? Actually that doesn't matter. Well then I guess we'll have to stop by the store then," Uhaku said as she ready herself. "Lead the way Naruto!" 

     "Aye Aye, Souichi-san!" 

     "No need to be formal, Naruto. Please, just call me U-chan!" Uhaku smiled at him and ruffled his wild blonde hair. Naruto smiled happily and nodded at her and started towards the market place. Uhaku started after him but then turned back toward the older shinobi. "Have a good night, Kakashi-san. I'll be seeing you soon then?" 

     "Of course" Kakashi replied. With that Uhaku turned back and chased after Naruto who was waiting for Uhaku to catch up. Kakashi watched them disappear within the village, and had an amused look on his face. Although you can't see it since his face is hidden behind his mask, but you can sure tell that he is from that amused look in his eye. In all truth, he wasn't sure if he should trust someone as suspicious as Uhaku to be interferring with his student's lives this much. He'll just have to keep an extra eye on her just in case. 

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
To be continued ...   
  
  
  
  
  
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**NOTES:  
  
[1] Himitsu:** Actually I'm not sure if everyone knows this Japanese term as everyone would know sensei and konichiwa. It means "secret"   


  



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